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The Adventure of the Yellow Face
"The Adventure of the Yellow Face" is a Sherlock Holmes short story by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was first published in the February 1893 issue of The Strand magazine in the United Kingdom and the February 11, 1893 issue of Harper's Weekly magazine in the United States. It would be published again in December of the same year as part of the anthology The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. In the story, a man named Grant Munro seeks the help and advice of the famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. A cottage near to Grant Munro's home has recently become occupied. One of its two occupants is a Scottish woman who appears to be very unfriendly. The other is someone, Grant Munro does not know whether the person is a man or a woman, whose face appears to be unnaturally rigid and of an unusual color. On three occasions, Grant Munro's wife Effie goes to the cottage which is home to the unusual people. She refuses to tell her husband why she went there, telling him that it would be better if he did not know her reason. Holmes comes up with a theory that explains Effie Munro's behavior. His theory turns out to be completely wrong, although the mystery is solved anyway. Plot One day in spring, the apartment which is shared by the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson is visited by Mr. Grant Munro. Grant Munro, also known to his wife as Jack, has come to ask Sherlock Holmes to solve a mystery. He also wants advice. Grant Munro explains that he is concerned about Effie, his wife of three years, and the secret which she is obviously keeping from him. He is certain that Effie still loves him but is uncertain how their relationship can continue. When she was young, Effie moved to the United States. She married a lawyer called John Hebron from Atlanta and had one child. Effie says that both her husband and child died of yellow fever. Shortly afterwards, there was a fire at Effie's Atlanta home which she claims destroyed all of her documents and all of her photographs of John Hebron. However, Effie was able to obtain another copy of her husband's death certificate. Effie returned to England and met Grant Munro six months later. Grant Munro has an annual income of between seven and eight hundred pounds. From her first husband, Effie Munro inherited four thousand five hundred pounds that was well invested. After she married Grant Munro, Effie signed all of her money over to him, on the condition that she could ask him for money at any time and he would hand it over to her without asking any questions. Two months ago, Effie asked her husband for a hundred pounds. He asked her why she wanted the money but she refused to tell him. Effie and Grant Munro rent a large house in the town of Norbury. The nearest building to their house is a cottage that has been empty for a long time. A few days ago, Grant Munro noticed furniture being moved into the cottage. At an upper story window, he saw a face suddenly appear and then disappear. The face was of an unnatural color and seemed strangely stiff and expressionless. His curiosity having been aroused, Grant Munro knocked on the door of the cottage. It was opened by a Scottish woman who seemed to be distinctly unfriendly. Grant Munro offered to help her in settling into her new home. She told him that she would call on him if she needed him and shut the door in his face. Although he chose not to tell his wife about the cottage's two strange inhabitants, Grant Munro did tell her that the cottage had become occupied. Shortly before three o'clock in the morning, Grant Munro saw his wife get dressed and go out. When she returned twenty minutes later, he asked her where she had gone. She answered that she simply went out to get some fresh air. The following afternoon, Grant Munro returned to the cottage, hoping to catch another glimpse of the strange face. He was surprised to see his wife come out of the cottage. She told him that she had just been to help her new neighbors. She said that it was her first visit to the cottage and denied having gone there the night before. Grant Munro, however, knew that she was lying. He wanted to go inside the building but Effie told him not to, saying, "nothing but misery can come if you enter that cottage". Grant Munro agreed not to ask Effie any more about her visits to the cottage, on the condition that she never went there again. Three days later, on the day before he went to see Holmes, Grant Munro came home early. The maid told him that his wife was not there. From a window, Grant Munro saw the maid heading in the direction of the cottage. He went there too. Without knocking, Grant Munro went inside the building and found it deserted. In the upper story room, from the window of which he had seen the strange face, he found a recent photograph of his wife. When Grant Munro returned home, Effie apologized to him for having broken her promise never to return to the cottage. She refused, however, to tell him why she had gone there. Sherlock Holmes thinks that Grant Munro only found the cottage empty because its occupants had been warned that he was coming. He is certain that they have now returned. He tells Grant Munro to return to Norbury. If he sees that the cottage's occupants are back, Grant Munro should send a telegram to Holmes. Holmes will then go to Norbury to investigate. After Grant Munro has left, Holmes tells Watson that he believes that Effie's first husband is still alive. He believes that her American husband became unpleasant. She obtained a copy of another man's death certificate, assumed the false identity of that man's widow and fled to England. Her first husband and his female accomplice have found out about Effie's bigamous marriage to Grant Munro and are trying to blackmail her. She tried to prevent them from coming to England by paying them a hundred pounds. However, that did not work and her first husband and his accomplice are now occupying the cottage. Shortly afterwards, a telegram arrives which says that the cottage's occupants have returned. Holmes and Watson travel to Norbury. Grant Munro meets them at the station and leads them to the cottage. Effie is standing at its door. Again, she tells her husband not to go inside. Grant Munro insists that he wants to know the truth. He, Holmes and Watson go to the upper story room. They find it occupied by a little girl who is wearing a red dress and long white gloves. Watson is shocked when he sees the girl's strangely colored and expressionless face. Holmes realizes that she is wearing a mask. He takes it off and reveals that the little girl is black. Effie explains that the little girl is her daughter Lucy. For the first time, she shows Grant Munro the picture inside her locket. It is a photograph of her first husband John Hebron, a black man. John Hebron died of yellow fever. His daughter survived but was left too weak to travel to England. She stayed in Atlanta in the care of a Scottish nurse. When she fell in love with Grant Munro, Effie believed that he would not accept her if he knew that she had been married to a black man and had a black child. She therefore lied about her daughter being dead. However, when the nurse told her that Lucy was well enough to travel, Effie decided to arrange for the girl to come to England for a few weeks. She sent the nurse a hundred pounds and advised her to rent the cottage. So that there would be no gossip about a black girl being in the neighborhood, the nurse was told to keep Lucy inside during the day and the girl was made to wear a mask and gloves in case anyone saw her at the window. When Effie heard that the cottage was occupied, she was so excited that she could not wait until the morning to see her daughter again. She went out when she thought her husband was asleep. Grant Munro picks up Lucy and kisses her. He says to his wife, "I am not a very good man, Effie but I am a better one than you give me credit for being." He returns home with Effie and Lucy. Holmes realizes that there is nothing more for him to do. He and Watson return to London. Sherlock Holmes admits that his theory about the case was completely wrong. He says that Watson should say "Norbury" to him if he ever again becomes careless in his investigations or overly confident in his own abilities. Adaptations A radio adaptation of "The Adventure of the Yellow Face", starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, first aired on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom on January 15, 1992. In the adaptation, the strange appearance of Lucy's face is due to it having been completely covered in yellow make up. Holmes removes it with a handkerchief. See also *Sound file of public domain audiobook of "The Adventure of the Yellow Face" from LibriVox External links *Text of "The Adventure of the Yellow Face" on Wikisource. *Quotations from "The Adventure of the Yellow Face" on Wikiquote. *"The Adventure of the Yellow Face" on Baker Street wiki. Category:Detective Category:Mystery Category:Short Stories Category:Famous Category:Classic